From Japanese Schulz to Polish Parnicki – around the year 1974 Cover Image

Od japońskiego Schulza do polskiego Parnickiego – w okolicach roku 1974
From Japanese Schulz to Polish Parnicki – around the year 1974

Author(s): Tokimasa Sekiguchi
Subject(s): Foreign languages learning
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: Polish language;Polish literature;translation;Polish studies;Japan;the Japanese;Bruno Schulz;Teodor Parnicki

Summary/Abstract: The major works by Bruno Schulz and Witold Gombrowicz were translated into Japanese in the 1960s, mainly by Yukio Kudō. I was enchanted by those Japanese texts to such an extent that I decided to abandon French literature and switch to Polish contemporary literature. In 1974, I came to Poland on a post-graduate fellowship of the Polish government, and I began studies in literature and the Polish language at the Jagiellonian University. During that two-year stay in Krakow, my view of Polish literature changed several times. The phase well established in the Japanese translations I had known ended quickly. Then I began to “hunt” for promising Polish authors not yet present in world literature. I thus discovered the prolific, esoteric and difficult Teodor Parnicki (1908–1988). This essay is my description of my “penetrating” the world of the Polish language at that time.

  • Issue Year: 2019
  • Issue No: 26
  • Page Range: 487-500
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: English
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